VGA Games
VGA stands for Video Graphics Array. VGA was released by IBM in 1987 via IBM's PS/2 personal computer. The IBM PS/2 VGA Display Adapter was the first VGA graphics card. VGA is the successor to IBM PC EGA.
Standard VGA displays in 320x200 and features 256 on-screen colors drawn from a palette range of 262,144 colors.
Standard VGA display memory ranges from 256K to (typically) 1 meg. VGA also supports per-pixel hardware-scrolling, page-shifting and parallel pixel processing.
It took three years for cloners to cost-reduce VGA. Proper VGA games also came out three years after VGA's initial release. By "proper", I mean computer games that actually banged VGA chipsets hard, not just displayed in VGA.
Non-standard Square-pixel VGA Games 320x240
This is a chronological list of the most technically notable IBM PC games that were coded to display in non-standard square-pixel VGA 320x240 as opposed to non-square-pixel VGA 320x200 (4:3 as opposed to 16:10).
Back in the day, 320x200 computer games appeared to be square-pixel because the analogue cathode ray-tube monitor (CRT) natively scaled screen-graphics to 4:3, but the original digital graphics were actually 16:10.
In paint packages such as Deluxe Paint of 1985 graphicians of 320x200 computer games outputted their art assets in squashed proportions in order to anticipate the monitor's aspect ratio, but graphicians were not always consistent: in the same game, on the same screen, you can sometimes see proportional and disproportional shapes. One circle appears propotional, another a prolate or oblate ellipse. Oftentimes, the shapes that appear on the playfield (where the action takes place) are proportional but the HUD shapes are disproportional. e.g., M1 Tank Platoon 1989.
320x240 (Mode X) was not as commonly employed as 320x200 (Mode 13h) because coding 320x240 was much more complicated and largely undocumented until the early 90s.
In 1991 non-standard VGA modes became more common (such as Mode X), improving pixel-display performance and proportions:VGA Mode X: 256 colors, square-pixel 1:1 aspect ratio at 320x240 to 360x480 + page-flipping + parallel pixel processing + per-pixel hardware scrolling.
Non-standard Square-pixel VGA Shoot 'em ups
The following shoot 'em ups display in square-pixel 320x240. For more info on these shoot 'em ups please refer to IBM PC Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order.
Comanche: Maximum Overkill of 1992 by NovaLogic:
The Last Eichhof of 1993 by Alpha-Helix:
The Flying Tigers of 1995 by Jay Kramer:
Stargunner of 1996 by WizardWorks:
Seek and Destroy of 1996 by Safari Software:
Super Stardust of 1996 by Housemarque:
Nebula Fighter of 1997 by Holodream Software:
More Non-standard Square-pixel VGA Games
Unless otherwise indicated the following games display in non-standard square-pixel VGA 320x240. Black borders indicate that the viewport is not taking advantage of all screen-space. Also, playfield sizes are reduced by score-panels and such-like in most platform games.
Lost Vikings of 1993 by Silicon & Synapse:
On a technical-level this is a good game. Note that Silicon & Synapse became Blizzard Entertainment.
Blackthorne IBM PC MS-DOS 1994
Blizzard Entertainment released Blackthorne on IBM PC MS-DOS in 1994. Blackthorne does not scroll: it is a flip-screen computer game. Wise decision. Note that Blizzard Entertainment would go on to code WarCraft and WarCraft 2. However, the inferior Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 were coded by Blizzard North.
It is funny how Blizzard North garnered so much underserved acclaim from the mainstream: they are not even the best Blizzard crew.
Case in point: Diablo 1 screen-scrolling is not as smooth as WC2 or even Lost Vikings screen-scrolling. And Diablo 1 runs at a pathetic 25 FPS.
Superfrog IBM PC MS-DOS 1994
Rayman IBM PC MS-DOS
Ubi Soft Paris Studios released Rayman for IBM PC MS-DOS in December of 1995.
Rayman displays in Mode X 256-color VGA 320x200, but its active drawspace is only 304x200.
Rayman audio supports Maxi Sound 16, Maxi Sound 32, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Master 2, MV_PAS, AdLib Gold, ESS AudioDrive, Ensoniq SoundScape, Microsoft Sound System, Sound Source PC/Tandy, Sierra, Roland RAP-10, Gus, Gus Max, Wave Jammer, Speech Thing, Yamaha and Blue Power.
Rayman was distributed on 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Rayman Installation. The install size is 88.5 megs and consists of 102 files.
Earthworm Jim IBM PC MS-DOS 1995
Shiny Entertainment Inc. released Earthworm Jim for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1995. Earthworm Jim runs in 320x240 at 60 Hz or 320x224 at 72 Hz. Earthworm Jim requires an i80486DX2 33 MHz CPU, 520K of free conventional memory, 8 megs of EMS memory and 1 meg of vRAM.
Earthworm Jim employs multi-layered parallax scrolling, super-scrolling and all sorts of fancy tricks. However, like Rayman it plays no better than and is no more fun than platform games and run and gun games of the late-80s and early-90s.
As with Rayman of the same year, Earthworm Jim was developed by an army of people. PC Earthworm Jim was programmed by Morton Grouleff and Lars Balker Rasmussen.
Lost Vikings 2 PC DOS Beam Software
Beam Software released Norse by Norse West: The Return of the Lost Vikings aka Lost Vikings 2 in 1997 for IBM PC MS-DOS. Lost Vikings 2 displays in 256-color VGA 320x240.
The Lost Vikings 2 requires a i80486DX4 100 MHz CPU, 16 megs of RAM and 2 megs of vRAM. Employs pre-rendered sprites and FMVs. The Windows version requires a Pentium 60 MHz, 16 megs of RAM and DirectX 3.0.
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